Laverne Cox Makes History As The First Transgender Emmy Nominee Ever

The rise of Orange Is The New Black’s Laverne Cox continues with the actress scoring a Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy nomination, which marks the first time a transgender person has ever been so honoured.

Cox’s nomination is just one of 12 the show received, with the series’ actresses dominating the comedy categories. Alongside Laverne in the Guest Actress list are Natasha Lyonne and Uzo Aduba, Kate Mulgrew is up for Best Supporting Actress and Taylor Schilling will compete for Best Actress In A Comedy Series.

It was a good year for LGBT-themed entertainment, as along with Orange Is The New Black’s noms, The Normal Heart scored major attention for its actors, as Mark Ruffalo is up for Best Actor In A Miniseries Or Movie, while in the Best Supporting Actor category it scored an incredible four of the five noms for Alfred Molina, Jim Parson, Joe Mantello and Matt Bomer. Julia Roberts also got a look in on the Supporting Actress list.

Indeed, looking through the list of Emmy nominees the vast majority of shows included in the list include gay content, from Modern Family and Game Of Thrones, to Masters Of Sex and Downton Abbey.

However, while it’s been an incredible year for Laverne Cox, topped by her Emmy nomination and being featured on the cover of Time, the actress has been talking recently about how her rise to success has come with a dark side – as more public exposure has resulted in increased attacks on her on the internet. While it has often been noted that social media has allowed transgender people to start controlling their own public stories for the first time, the flipside is that it means the entire world can answer back, and many people are both cruel and almost stunningly bigoted.

In an emotional interview with BET, Cox says, “I’ve felt it since the cover of TIME Magazine, like all of a sudden like my Twitter feed and my Instagram there’s all this negativity. I was getting Google Alerts about me [somehow being in league] with Satan.”